Best Spiritual Books of 2018
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These are the books that inspired me and challenged my thinking in 2018.
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Dark Star Rising: Magick and Power in the Age of Trump. Historian and thinker Gary Lachman’s fascinating and provocative book examines the toxic blend of politics, positive thinking, and the occult. According to Lachman, this hidden combination has been weaponized by government leaders in the U.S. and Russia as well as the Alt-Right, who support the rise of authoritarian politics globally. Did positive thinking and magical practices spread via the Internet influence the U.S. election? It may have, but alarming as that story is, Lachman also pursues the bigger picture. These trends didn’t arrive in a cultural vacuum. He dissects how our culture devolved into a Post-Truth world where entertainment and reality are blurred, where conspiracy theories find fertile ground, and politicians who are strangers to the truth find a receptive audience. (My interview podcast with Lachman about the book will be featured on the blog).
Infinite Possibility: How to Use the Ideas of Neville Goddard to Create the Life You Want. Katherine (Kate) Jegede’s book about the practices of New Thought great Neville Goddard is one of the best New Thought books of this or any year. What makes this such a strong book is that Jegede lives the ideas she explores. She also movingly writes about the traumas that forced her to take a fresh approach to Neville’s teachings by asking life’s toughest questions about meaning and suffering. You won’t find any superficial calls to put on your happy face here. You will find a wise guide, but you’ll still have to put in the work and as you test and experiment with these practices.
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Magic for The Resistance: Rituals And Spells for Change. Michael M. Hughes’ comprehensive guide is one way metaphysically minded people can counteract the Alt-Right’s “dark star rising.” In some ways the book dovetails with New Thought, but it also challenges the “see no evil” naïveté of New Thought/New Age approaches. Hughes says that approach comes from a position of privilege. Those who use magic for progressive politics are often from the marginalized strata of society and they want equality and justice, not metaphysical nice-nice. His careful arguments place boundaries around his recommended practices so they are focused solely on preventing harmful actions against people who can’t otherwise defend themselves and nature. Hughes also offers concise explanations of the history and practical how-to’s for folk magic (sometimes called conjuring). In these sections, one clearly sees the common aims and goals as well as the differences between New Thought and magic.
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The Miracle Club: How Thoughts Become Reality. Mitch Horowitz’s newest book breaks so much new ground. It’s a call to wake up from the trance that an iron-clad Law of Attraction creates 100 percent of our lives. In its place he calls for intellectual rigor and experimentation to get a more complete picture of when metaphysical practices work and why. We need to stop blaming ourselves and others for creating suffering and instead treat everyone with compassion, including ourselves. Horowitz presents a major new theory for how New Thought practices may work and includes one of the first serious looks at how ESP plays a role in manifestation. He allows himself to be guided by serious scientific research and the measured responses it leads him to in terms of health and healing. He’s read the studies so this isn’t a superficial listing of flimsy overly-optimistic support for mind metaphysics. With all this it’s inspirational and aspirational; all the more so for its grounded realism. Horowitz mines his own life experience and spiritual search to great effect. This is a must-read and one I will be returning to often throughout the coming year.
Real Magic: Ancient Wisdom, Modern Science and a Guide to the Secret Power of the Universe. Dean Radin, PhD. Radin explores how a magical worldview gave birth to both religion and science (though both now try to disown it for their own reasons). He then deeply explores his own stellar research and other scientific findings to explain how magic and New Thought practices may work. Spoiler alert: he doesn’t believe it always works, but there are approaches and ways to increase the likelihood of intentions creating reality. The book is filled with fascinating personal stories about manifestation and synchronicities. Radin also looks at new theories that our universe is grounded in information and awareness rather than energy. By introducing intentions and symbols into consciousness at the information level, we may be able to influence reality.
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Time Loops: Precognition, Retrocausation, and the Unconscious. Eric Wargo’s carefully researched and argued book Time Loops deeply explores how our as-yet-unknown future can influence our present. This scientific concept is known as retrocausation. Let’s take my trip to Paris as an example of New Thought versus retrocausation. New Thought adherents would say the trip came about because my wife and I had a vision, then created affirmations, and believed it could happen. Wargo’s theory would say that our future selves were in Paris and the joy of being there inspired the vision. There no way to neatly summarize the book’s wide scope from spirituality to physics to psychic sci-fi giant Phillip K. Dick. Its thesis and the questions it raises are provocative and mind-bending. I was alternatively fascinated and challenged by it. I argued with it and I couldn’t put it down.
WHAT I’M READING NEXT
Here’s the start of my 2019 reading list. What other books would you suggest? Please post your recommendations below.
I’m looking forward to reading: Gary Jansen’s Life Everlasting (which explores the deeper meaning of Catholic practices in a way of value to all seekers and relates his own spiritual and mystical journey) and Microshifts (small strategic steps for overcoming inertia and changing your life), Peter Bebergal’s Strange Frequencies (how people have used technology since ancient times to contact the spirit world) and Diana Walsh Pasulka’s American Cosmic: UFOs, religion, technology (a combination of the Da Vinci Code and academic work, this book explores the commonalities between religion and UFOs and how people explain the unexplainable).
